Chandler and Short share honours in Cadwell classics

The 5 Club Racing MX5 Cup headed to Lincolnshire and the tight and twisty Cadwell Park for what proved to be another couple of thrilling MX5 races. Double Donington Park race winner, Will Blackwell-Chambers returned to the series to battle Brian Chandler and Ben Short.

Qualifying

Blackwell-Chambers returned with a pole position when he set the quickest time of the qualifying session with a lap time of 1:46.04 which was 0.33 seconds quicker than Short.

Chandler, who’s only been beaten once in racing, could only manage third. James Rogers continued in his favourite position, fourth and was the best of the rest once again. Gary Hufford was next up ahead of Harry Deane, Daniel Stewart and Jack Sycamore. 22 cars would line up for the races.

Race 1

After taking the early advantage, Short missed a gear which dropped him back behind Blackwell-Chambers and Chandler. Chandler used the slipstream across the startline to take the lead into Coppice at the beginning of lap two.

Despite the top three running close throughout the distance, nobody was able to find a gap to pass the car in front around the tight Cadwell Park circuit. The top three completed the race only 1.3 seconds apart with Chandler taking his ninth victory of 2014 ahead of Blackwell-Chambers and Short.

After breaking away from Hufford, Rogers had a lonely race to finish in fourth. Behind Hufford, Sycamore took sixth after racing Deane in his debut. Gendy, John Powell and Matthew Short had lonely races and finished inside the top ten.

Stephen Craggs gained seven places to finish in eleventh position ahead of Ian Tomlinson. Craggs was helped with Ben Hancy pulling off on the sixth lap at the top of the Mountain. Hancy was the only retirement, once again showing the high driving standards within the 5Club Racing paddock.

Race 2

Short made a magnificent start to jump the front row men, Chandler and Blackwell-Chambers before an epic duel broke out. Short made a mistake through the Gooseneck on the fifth lap which dropped him back down into third. On the following lap, heading down into Mansfield Blackwell-Chambers charged up in the inside on Chandler which dropped the latter down to third.

The move of the weekend came up next when Short drove around the outside Blackwell-Chambers at the foot of the Mountain – a move which is almost unheard of. Short was then able to hold on for the victory with the top three only separated by 1.49 seconds.

Rogers did join in the battle for the lead but had a spin at the Gooseneck on the seventh lap. However, he had pulled out a bigger enough advantage to hold on to fourth.

Deane made a good getaway and ran in fifth on the first lap but fell back on lap two and ended up in eighth. Hufford and Sycamore had a dice, in which Hufford came out on top. Gendy was the third driver who passed Deane and finished in seventh.

Stewart moved his way through the field and managed ninth but was unable to get ahead of Deane despite being only a tenth of a second shy of him at the flag. Powell spent the whole race defending Short Snr and successfully did so to finish tenth.

Tomlinson was 12th ahead of Hancy who fought his way through from the back of the grid. He passed Grant Williamson on the final lap who beat Nick Le Doyen. They were both in battle with Stuart McKay who fell out of the race on the eighth lap.

The 5 Club Racing MX5 Cup will be in action for the final time on the 5th of October at Donington Park for the final two rounds of the series. Therefore, finishing the series where it started – although on the National circuit, this time. Donington always creates excellent racing, so make sure you join us there.